Disklavier

Good evening PianoBench!  I was hoping you might clarify and explain in 
further detail your marvelous reply Re: music creator 2002.  I just want to 
be sure I understand the concept.

First, what is the "note-on" velocity?  I am assuming that this is the value 
(voltage) that moved the key that caused the hammer to hit the string and 
created a specific "loudness".  Since my piano also has hammer sensors, is 
this an algorythm? Is this value calculated any differently for pianos 
without hammer sensors? If you record your piano playing at the loudness you 
want to hear, and take the file into Veloset, you will see the range of 
velocities. I am assuming that this "loudness quotient" will be different 
for various models of pianos because some pianos are louder/quieter than 
others.

  I also notice when adjusting the ppp value in Maintenance Mode that the 
velocity never goes below 20, so I take it Robert's advice of not going 
below 22 comes from this value.  The ppp velocity value is the lowest amount 
of power it takes to make the note play.  Is this where the Piano Tables 
conditions comes from?  How would you be able to look at this table?

However, it is the higher value of this "note-on" velocity that causes us 
DKV owners so much trouble with the volume.  The DKV default is 100 (on a 
scale from 0-127) and that is just too loud for most of us sitting near the 
piano.

What is "controller 7" and how do you play with it?  Is this the listed 
velocity for any note in the Event window of a sequencer program?  Is 
"velocity scaling" how this is done globally to an entire file?  Could you 
explain exactly how this is done using a common sequencer?  Perhaps ProAudo 
Tracks, or Cakewalk Home studio, or Yamaha XG Works 3.0?  I know this is 
more that opening the Tracks window and changing the number from 100 to 60 
in the Velocity column.

There are global editing programs like Veloset and the Giebler utility, but 
are not the XG sounds also turned down as well as the piano tracks?  If that 
happens to the point where you can't hear the XG sounds (like perhaps at a 
setting of 30) can the volume on the speakers be turned up to compensate for 
that?

Also, would you comment about default settings inherently built into the DKV 
and PianoSoft disks?  I understand that PianoSoft floppies played through 
the control box on a DKV are far more subject to default values than the 
same files played through a MIDI interface.  Does this mean that "edited" 
files placed on a floppy won't play the same through the contol box as 
through a MIDi interface?

I reread the Reference Manual for the MarkIIXG and discovered the page about 
editing the volume of the piano track with the controller.  But I am told 
that as soon as the next song is played, the DKV reverts back to the 
defaults and you have to set them all over again!  Gonna try it now!

I must say, though, that "one size fits all" does not hold true for all 
models of Disklaviers when it comes to volume control and the perception of 
loudness.


Thanks for your help.

Carol Beigel

>From: PianoBench@...
>Reply-To: disklavier@yahoogroups.com
>To: disklavier@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: Re: [disklavier] Re: music creator 2002
>Date: Wed, 14 Aug 2002 09:51:17 EDT
>
>Good morning, everyone.
>
>In a message dated 8/13/02 9:36:25 PM, hedoshedo@... writes:
>
><< -thanks Robert..i did just that...works good..looks like most songs
>downloaded from the internet are set at 127 or 109..what do you
>suggest as a maximum? I used 60 -max...i want to have the piano
>play,yet have conversations near it.. >>
>
>I am not familiar with Music Creator. However, I can give you a little
>background info that may help you as you set parameters in that program or 
>in
>any other program.
>
>There are two MIDI parameters to consider:
>
>(1) the note-on velocities and
>
>(2) the volume setting (controller 7) for the piano track(s).
>
>You can do an experiment for yourself to determine the desired range of
>note-on velocities: Record a little music on your Disklavier at the desired
>volume level, and then open the recorded MIDI file in a sequencer on your
>computer and look at the range of resulting note-on velocities. That should
>provide you with guidelines for editing your MIDI files.
>
>FYI: In the loudest classical music, note-on velocities rarely exceed 
>95-100
>and top out in the range of 105-110. Less loud music tops out considerably
>lower.
>
>As for the controller 7 setting: Early Disklaviers ignored the controller 7
>parameter. Starting with the Mark IIXG, Disklaviers now respond to that
>parameter. The native setting for the piano part is controller 7=100. Many
>internet MIDI files that were authored on instruments with weak piano 
>sounds
>often boost controller 7 much higher, even to the maximum of 127.
>
>I suggest that you set controller 7 to 100 for all of your piano parts and
>then adjust the note-on velocities to suit your needs. If you ignore the
>controller 7 paramenter, you will get different results with each MIDI file
>even if you adjust the note-one velocities in the same way for each file.
>
>Regards,
>PianoBench






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